More Americans think abortion is 'morally wrong' than 'morally acceptable,' Gallup poll shows

Anti-abortion demonstrators demonstrate in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in this June 30, 2014 file photo.Reuters

Good news to all Christians: More and more Americans are standing firm on protecting the life of the unborn.

The number of residents in the United States who think that abortion is "morally wrong" increased over the past year, a recent survey by the research-based consulting company Gallup revealed.

Forty-seven percent of the 1,025 adults who participated in telephone interviews conducted by Gallup from May 4 to 8 disagreed with killing innocent babies. This figure is a slight improvement from last year, when 45 percent of the respondents expressed opposition to abortion.

Alarmingly however, 43 percent of the respondents still think that abortion is "morally acceptable." Thankfully, this number is lower compared to last year's 45 percent.

Democrats were more likely to find abortion acceptable compared to Republicans and Independents. According to the Gallup survey, 62 percent of Republicans were fine with killing the unborn, while 24 percent of Republicans and 44 percent of Independents shared this view.

Still, Gallup observed that the moral acceptability of abortion "has increased" when viewed on the long term.

"The public's attitudes on the morality of abortion reflect a recent split, and contrast with a slightly more conservative stance seen in most years from 2002 through 2014. During that period, 50 percent of Americans, on average, called abortion morally wrong, while only 39 percent called it morally acceptable," the survey firm said in a statement posted on its website.

In fact, there is a clear split between the respondents who identified themselves as either "pro-choice" or "pro-life" this year. Forty-seven percent of the survey participants said they were "pro-choice" while 46 percent described themselves as "pro-life."

Also quite alarmingly, 51 percent of the Gallup survey respondents said that abortion is "legal only under certain circumstances." Twenty-nine percent said killing babies is "legal under any circumstances," while only 19 percent said abortion is "illegal in all circumstances."